Korea as the war's strategic prize

The conflict centered on political control of Korea rather than a direct dispute over the Japanese or Chinese homeland. Much of the fighting therefore occurred in a third country whose name did not appear in the war's usual label. Japan's 1895 invasion of Taiwan is conventionally treated as a separate operation even though it followed directly from the same expansion. The overview makes Korea's position between larger rivals the essential geography for understanding the 1894-95 war.